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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26366404">A Word of Advice</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Just_here_for_a_laugh/pseuds/Just_here_for_a_laugh'>Just_here_for_a_laugh</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Badass Toph Beifong, Banter, Disabled Zuko, Firelord Zuko (Avatar), Fluff, Fluffy, Post-Canon, Post-War, Teeny bit of angst, Toph Being Awesome, Toph does not want to go home to her parents, Uncle Iroh is mentioned but he's not actually seen, Zuko has vision impairment, Zuko is exasperated with his advisors, Zuko needs a break, blanket nest, but he deserves all the love in the world anyway, set in the Fire Nation</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 06:47:19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,990</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26366404</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Just_here_for_a_laugh/pseuds/Just_here_for_a_laugh</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Zuko is exasperated with his selfish, arrogant, old regime advisors and he is having a hard time controlling his temper. He's glad Toph is here to rant to, but actually, come to thing of it, why is Toph here? </p><p>Or<br/>The one where Toph keeps making up excuses to avoid going home to Gaoling</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Toph Beifong &amp; Zuko</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>434</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Word of Advice</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Zuko stormed down the corridor, smoke huffing out of his nostrils. His meeting with the advisors had gone as disastrously as always. They were all Ozai’s former generals or noblemen who had happened to be next in the long-forgotten line for peacetime counsel seats. He didn’t trust a single one of them, and they weren’t jumping to give him a reason to.</p><p><br/>
Zuko had a temper, everyone knew that. He once got publicly assaulted and scarred for it. Trying to keep it secret was a lost cause, but he did his best to keep it under control. Uncle Iroh had worked with him for countless hours over his banishment and now his rule teaching him breathing exercises and meditative techniques, mantras he could think and diplomatic phrases he could say to stop an argument before it started; none of it was working. Outside the counsel chambers he did fantastic; he led the Fire Nation with a grace and compassion not seen within living memory (Aang and Bumi included), but sitting at the table with his royal cabinet he could barely go a single meeting without flaring up the candles. The men knew he was hotheaded, and they tried to use it against him, rile him up, get him out of a clear headspace so they could better further their agendas. Zuko grasped his hair in frustration. He didn’t want to turn into his father, but at this point he had no idea how to run that room without the shouting and fear tactics Ozai had employed. He desperately needed to figure something out.<br/>
Sighing, he pushed a door open and flopped face first onto a huge pile of blankets and pillows. To his left Toph reclined on her own pillow throne with one foot in the air and one firmly on the ground as she picked idly her nails.</p><p><br/>
“Rough day?” she asked. Zuko just groaned. Not bothering to lift his head, he used his foot to shut the door to the little room, keeping the rest of the world outside where it belonged. There were many large, grandiose rooms in the palace fit for all sorts of galas, strategic war planning, cultish reverence ceremonies of the firelord, and all the other things he had endured in his childhood that Zuko was determined to do away with. The palace was now truly his, and truly the people’s, and he had immediately set to repurposing a great number of the various rooms and halls. As a result some of the rooms now didn’t really have an official purpose. This was one that fell into that category, and the Gaang had taken to crashing in it whenever they needed a break. It was tiny compared to some of the other cavernous spaces in the palace, hardly more than a closet, but it was cozy and pleasant and away from everyone else. It was theirs. He took another deep breath and sighed.</p><p><br/>
“The entire counsel is made up of arrogant, pompous imbeciles interested only for themselves and unworthy of the title Fire Nation citizen.”</p><p><br/>
“Well yeah,” Toph scoffed, “I could have told you that.” Zuko huffed. “Relax Sparky, you’re still the one in charge. They can’t destroy anything on their own.” Zuko mumbled something into the pillow; he supposed she was right. Still, that certainly didn’t seem to stop them from trying! “Besides,” Toph started again, “if things get too bad you can always just bring in Azula,” she quipped. Zuko turned his head, still buried in the blanket, just slightly to the side.</p><p><br/>
“I want you to know that if I could see out of this eye I’d be glaring at you,” he said.</p><p><br/>
“Well I want you to know if I could see out of either eye I’d appreciate it,” she smirked. Zuko laughed and rolled over on his back, finally calming down enough to relax a little.</p><p><br/>
“Gosh,” he said, “there’s just so many things to do.”</p><p><br/>
“About that,” Toph said as she sat up, “I think I might have thought of a way to take something off your plate. You mentioned wanting to incorporate more diverse cuisine into the large royal ceremonies, specifically Earth Kingdom foods cause you like them and cause we’re essentially the only other major world power, so I figured I’d teach the palace chefs how to make different things.” Zuko raised his head.</p><p><br/>
“Toph,” he questioned, staring suspiciously.</p><p><br/>
“Yeah?”</p><p><br/>
“You don’t know how to cook.” Toph shrugged at him like that was entirely immaterial.</p><p><br/>
“I’m sure I can figure it out. I know what they taste like so after some trial and error it should all work out fine. I’m still finishing up that cultural exchange stuff about manners and whatnot, but I should be able to get started on the food in a couple of weeks or so.” Zuko sat up and continued trying to assess her, more confused the longer she went on.</p><p><br/>
“Aren’t you going home in a few weeks?” he asked.</p><p><br/>
“I mean I was, but I can push that back again. Like you said there’s so much work to be done here,” came the reply. Zuko thought the offer over; Toph was the last one of his friends still here. Well, there was Suki of course, but that was different since the Kyoshi Warriors had now become his personal guards. Sokka, Katara, and Aang however had all left weeks ago. They had all had a large hand in the immediate reconstruction and establishing Zuko as Firelord, and they had scheduled visits to come to the Fire Nation pretty frequently in the near future for both diplomatic and personal visits, but their homes were elsewhere and after so long away it was time to go back, or in Aang’s case start anew. Toph however had stayed behind. Initially she had helped with literal reconstruction, moving giant cornerstones faster than anyone else could have and even reshaping entire sections of land. With her help they had achieved in a few weeks what would have taken years or even decades without her. Then she moved onto the smaller issues like helping Zuko redesign parts of the palace to be more friendly for the vision impaired. He knew his way around the palace pretty well from muscle memory left over from his pre-scar childhood and he had adapted pretty well to his lack of depth perception and limited field of vision over the years, but there were places in the palace that a little boy didn’t go very often but a Firelord was required to inhabit regularly, and a giant palace filled with imposing statues, weapons displays, and aesthetics-over-practicality architecture was somewhat more difficult to navigate than a stark iron ship or a humble tea shop. Zuko really appreciated her help, but it seemed like she was never finished. She kept finding more and more to do, like her latest suggestion of teaching the palace officials and ambassadors the fine points of high society Earth Kingdom etiquette. Now with this quite frankly ridiculous suggestion about teaching the cooks, Zuko suddenly realized something he felt he should have much earlier.</p><p><br/>
“Toph,” he asked softly, trying his best not to make the next moment too awkward, “do you not want to go home?”</p><p><br/>
“Well I mean home is home and that’s very important and the kingdom is lovely but there’s needs here that need to be-” she started, much faster than usual, before Zuko cut her off.</p><p><br/>
“Toph?” he asked again, a little firmer. The World’s Greatest Earth Bender hung her head and pulled her limbs in tighter.</p><p><br/>
“No,” she mumbled. Zuko relaxed his posture and smiled slightly.</p><p><br/>
“You know, you could have just said so.” Toph let out a small chuckle and shook her head sadly.</p><p><br/>
“No, my parents would never allow that. The only reason they haven’t sent an entire regiment after me is cause I’m doing something, something that benefits the Beifong image. If I just ran away again it would be a different story, and the last thing anyone needs right now is an international incident between the elite of the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation throne,” she reasoned. Zuko shook his head.</p><p><br/>
“No,”  he said flatly. “I know what it’s like to deal with a family that doesn’t care what’s in your best interests, and if you don’t want to go back you aren’t going. I’ll come up with an official position for you, a permanent one, even if we have to make one up.” Toph didn’t say anything for a moment. Then,</p><p><br/>
“You’d do that for me?” she asked quietly. Zuko smiled softly.</p><p><br/>
“Of course I would Toph.” After a second he huffed a quiet laugh, “What good is being Firelord if I can't invent fake jobs for the people I care about?” Rolling her eyes, Toph shoved him lightly as they both grinned. “Come on,” he said, standing up, “Uncle’s back, let’s go see if he brought any cakes back from the Jasmine Dragon.”</p><p><br/>
“Oh nice!” Toph jumped up before grinning impishly. “Race you.”</p><p><br/>
Zuko beamed. “Oh you’re on.”</p><p><br/>
</p><p><br/>
</p><p>	As the two were walking back to the official Gaang-blanket-nest-headquarters, eating their cakes and laughing as they got crumbs everywhere, they ran into one of the royal advisors in the hall.</p><p><br/>
“Firelord Zuko,” he said with a bow. “Miss Beifong. What an honor to run into you both.” It took every ounce of their combined willpower not to roll their eyes. Undeterred by their less than enthusiastic greeting, the man continued. “I just came from a meeting with some of the local merchants; it seems that we will be able to come to a suitable arrangement quite soon. I’m sure that they will be very pleased with what we’ve come up with.”</p><p><br/>
“That is wonderful news,” Zuko said amicably, “thank you.”</p><p><br/>
“Of course, sir,” he said, bowing as Zuko began to walk away. Once they were out of earshot Toph shook her head.</p><p><br/>
“Man, I hate slimeball politicians.” Zuko snorted.</p><p><br/>
“Tell me about it. All the posturing makes me want to vomit most days.”</p><p><br/>
“No, no, I mean the lying. He totally just lied straight to your face.”</p><p><br/>
“What?” asked Zuko, stopping in his tracks. Toph stopped too and nodded.</p><p><br/>
“Mhmm. The only true thing he said the entire time was that he had been in a meeting with some merchants. Whatever they talked about in there it did not go well, and his offer will screw them and he knows it.” Zuko gaped at her. Finally, after a few seconds of shocked silence he spoke again.</p><p><br/>
“Toph, I think we may not have to make up a fake job for you after all.”</p><p><br/>
</p><p><br/>
</p><p>	The next afternoon the royal advisors sat in the counsel chambers waiting for the Firelord. The room was dim and sweltering per usual as they sat like they always did, silent and brooding. Suddenly the doors swung open and in walked Firelord Zuko. He sported a grin the likes of which the men had never seen on him before and every candle in the room brightened as he entered.</p><p><br/>
“Good afternoon gentlemen. I am pleased to announce that I have made an addition to the group. I would like you to meet my newest advisor: the Lady Toph Beifong of Gaoling.” The girl strode in head held high, and wearing not only a devilish smirk but the official robes of imperial high honor which the other counsel members wore as well, but hers were instead a deep hypnotic green. The men gasped and whirled around to look at one another, none able to believe what they saw. Zuko grinned even wider. “Now,” he started, walking over to his elevated seat and leading Toph to the seat next to him, on his left side. The seat had previously remained empty as Firelord Zuko had trusted no one among them to sit nor even stand at his left side, and the statement was unmistakable.</p><p><br/>
“Shall we begin?”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hey guys! This is my first Avatar fic but it's by far my oldest fandom and I'm super excited to share. I don't own Avatar the Last Air Bender or anything associated with it. Happy reading!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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